I am REALLY loving looking out the clean windows! We are amazed at the level of color. Usually when there’s been a drought, the trees are pretty faded as the leaves turn.
I had done some more putting things back around windows and had gotten the bathroom greenhouse together on Sunday morning.
This maple along the driveway is glorious in the early morning sun.
So my friend arrived about 8:30 Sunday morning and we added some things to the lunch she’d brought and headed out. We didn’t have a definite plan on where we were going just “eastern NY by the Western Mass line”.
She had maps, old ones she’d saved, and I had gotten to be a good navigator on all the road trips with my husband, as we never had GPS. She had sort of thought we might head a little farther west than we had travelled, and go down the east side of the Hudson River.
My window lady had given me 2 destinations we could check out on a future road trip and I had passed them onto my friend. We thought we’d do them at a future time.
We commented on how well the foliage had done right where we lived and hoped that a bit south and west would be at peak. So we headed west on the Mass Pike and got off in Lee and followed a little road Rt. 23 into NY. It turned out to be a nice back road and we found lots of color. We didn’t stop much on the trip so I didn’t get any foliage shots.
We followed Rt. 23 all the way into Hudson, NY and as we went through the town, we started seeing these very old stoplights at each intersection. Then we picked up Rt. 9G and headed south along the Hudson.
We hadn’t gone very far when I saw a big sign saying:
I said, “That’s the place my window lady told me about!” And my friend said, “Let’s go!” and turned into the drive and up we went.
After following lots of winding roads upward, we caught sight of the building. We went into the carriage house turned gift shop and were immediately impressed with the quality of the things offered. We decided to wander around, then check out what tours of the inside were offered, and have lunch on the grounds.
We later found out that the house had not been abandoned very long before restoration started, in the 1970’s I think. It was designed by the artist Frederic Church for his family to live in and incorporated Persian influences he had seen in his travels. More about the grounds.
There were so many incredible details pointing to the skilled craftsmen who had built the house.
Just the restoration of the roofs and chimneys must have been hugely expensive. After wandering the grounds we went back to the lovely gift shop (someone had done an excellent job of selecting merchandise!) and asked about tours. A 45 minute tour of the house was $20. We hadn’t planned to spend money on this trip, so we decided next time we came back, we’d plan on a tour.
Some craftsman had built this branches fence near the house and the grounds were dotted in many places with benches of the same construction. We selected one with a view for our lunch.
I had brought not a lot: a plum and 2 terrines with apple that my son had brought home from where he works. She had filled her basket with jerky, granola bars, water, and apples. So we sat under a tree and enjoyed the view and our lunch.
She heard someone say there was a garden below us so after lunch we went to check it out.
There was a very long 8’ high wall facing south and the entrance said “The Mingled Garden”. There were morning glories everywhere and it hadn’t been well weeded recently. But the selection of plants was fascinating:
Love Lies Bleeding, sea thrift (I think)
More sea thrift (I think)
There were at least 4 different varieties of New England asters from deep purple to white. I liked this pink best.
There were 2 varieties of this giant plant, and several plants also. I can’t think of the name of it, anyone know of hand?
Not sure what this one is either. Anyone?
There were 2 types of nicotiana, cleome, lots of different colored salvias, penstemmon, lilies, iris, hollyhocks, peonies, datura, and many others, some I didn’t know.
View of the Hudson from the southwest side of the house
After the garden we wondered in search of the studio, but it looks like there is just the site of it left. Then we attempted to find the cozy cottage and the farm buildings, but we were unsuccessful. Next time we will see if there’s a map of the grounds available.
Looking due west over the river towards the Blackhead Mountains
Mountains, foliage, and river in one
We’d debated about going to find the other place my window lady had mentioned, but it would entail a bit of walking and I was getting pretty tired. So we decided to continue south on Rt. 9G. It wasn’t very close to the Hudson, so I sent us onto Rt. 35 which looked like we might have a chance of seeing the river. But alas, no...
We managed to get over to and across the George Clinton Kingston–Rhinecliff Bridge. The traffic was backed up the other way, and I hoped it would be on our side, so I could get a picture, but nope, it kept moving well.
We picked up I-87 on the other side and just sat back to enjoy the foliage. It was quite nice in most places, but a bit ahead of us in Western Mass. We were fascinated by how different the rock was through this part of New York, along the highways.
We saw several deer grazing within 6’ of the edge of the highway. That was sort of scary, not something you see in Western Mass, even though we have lots of deer. We got onto the Mass Pike and were back at my house by 4PM.
I offloaded some of the greens we’d processed, some Swiss chard, a watermelon, and a couple butternut squashes on my friend and she headed home.
I was exhausted and managed to heat soup for supper, pull the shades, and get 2 fires going and was in bed by 7:30.
On Monday I have laundry to do, editing the 50 photos I took and getting this post up, and I hope to get the 3 windows in the living room washed. We’ll see how far I get.